Why I Take My Bag to Breakfast

I travel light for many reasons. One of the most important is so I can easily carry my gear with me, regardless of where I am.

When I'm on the road, for example, I take my bag to breakfast. I do not leave my camera, laptop, and iPad in the hotel room. On road trips, I bring the Fastpack 150 AW inside for coffee stops and lunches. It doesn't belong locked up in the trunk. Where I go, so goes my gear.

On the surface, this sound materialistic, doesn't it? Anything but. I make my living with cameras and computers. They contain ideas, manuscripts, random thoughts, images, invoices, records, and memories. And when you think about it, they're easy to protect.

Carry one reasonably-sized bag, light and compact enough to accompany me as I navigate the world, and I am free. I can work anywhere at any time.

When I was a teenager, I saved for months to buy a Yashica SLR with three lenses. I was a stringer for the local paper and the yearbook photographer. During a Saturday afternoon at the beach, someone broke in to my faded blue VW bug and took everything. It wasn't even visible from the outside. They just found it.

A few years later, in college, my rented house was burglarized, and once again my gear was gone. The tools that I used to earn income and fulfill my class assignments were in the hands of an uncaring stranger.

People who steal from others suck. To them, these are just items to be cashed in for a few dollars. For those those stolen from, however, these things are part of our life. You don't steal a man's horse.

Being nimble has many advantages. And one of them is not having things taken from behind your back. I carry only what I need and limit my spending to what I can use. 

I'm sharing this with you from a bustling Denny's in Gilroy California. The waitress has just refreshed my coffee. The egg white omelet was excellent. And all is right with the world.

-Derrick

Independent Online Publishing

When I was let go from O'Reilly Media six years ago, I decided that I'd never work in a cubical again. 

It wasn't that I didn't like the regular salary, health benefits, nor paid time off. I did. But my view of publishing online was changing. And the approach that I wanted to take wouldn't mesh with a large company.

Bottom line: I wanted to be authentic.

I was tired of pretending to be smart, or to agitate conversations, or to follow the latest trend in social media thinking. I didn't want bosses who ran the marketing department. Instead, I wanted to tell the story of an evolving technology - digital media - in my own words.

Now, with both The Digital Story and The Nimble Photographer, I'm able to do that. Yes, I have to be business minded or the rent doesn't get paid. But my overhead is much lower than that of a large company. And this is one of the keys to independent online publishing.

Quite frankly, the amount of money I need to generate to keep posting is less than my larger competitors. And as a result, I can think more about what I want to say rather than how I'm going to profit from it.

And there are others like me, independent online publishers who are passionate about their work and honest in the advice they share.

To honor this culture, I'm going to use the phrase, "Independent Online Publishing" to refer to the work that the community of bloggers, podcasters, and photographers do every day. This is our job. And to be honest, it's worth the pay cut.

I've also created a page called Become a Supporter. It provides a way for independent listeners and readers of The Digital Story and The Nimble Photographer to show their support for this type of publishing.

I'm not sure where this idea is going to go from here. I secured the domain: www.independentonlinepublishing.com while I think about it. I may ask others to join this group.

In the meantime, I'm more motivated than ever to provide you with interesting, entertaining, and helpful content. I love having the freedom to write what I believe. 

And I'm lucky to have you to join me on this quest.

-Derrick

The Question I Receive Most Often

The current missteps by Adobe with Lightroom seem to have reinvigorated the conversation about photo management systems.  Those who are dedicated to Creative Cloud will most likely stay put. But there's a large group of disenfranchised photographers still looking for an answer in the post-Aperture era.

And many of them have visited my mailbox. "What is your go-to app?" is the most popular question I receive these days. And it's one that I don't have a solid answer for.

Like any working photographer, I need to deliver my product. And for those jobs I'm still depending on Aperture running on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Yes, Aperture works on El Capitan, but many of its plugins don't. And when I'm striving to deliver the best images possible, I need every advantage.

But I'm also a technologist and teacher. In that world I'm testing Capture One Pro, Photos for OS X, DxO OpticsPro, and mishmashes including Perfect Browse 9.

No, Lightroom isn't a leading candidate at the moment. I use it, primarily in concert with Lightroom Mobile and for HDR and panorama stitching. It definitely has some wonderful features. But I don't love it. And that's the problem.

Passion is what keeps me going. I'm not motivated by wealth or fame. As long as there's enough traffic to pay the bills, I'm content. But if I don't love the camera I'm using, the subjects I'm shooting, or the software that brings it all together, I'm not happy.

And that's why I haven't settled on an application beyond Aperture. I haven't fallen in love yet.

I sometimes feel like Walt Longmire, the Sheriff of Absaroka County, who pines for his deceased wife. He pushes forward. Sometimes with her ashes by his side.

For now, it's Aperture on Yosemite. Because as much as we hate to admit, it's hard to part with the things we love.

-Derrick

The Photo Assassin

Even though I'm not a violent person - firmly against murder for any reason - I've always been intrigued by those assassin kits we often see in espionage movies.

You've probably seen the same scenes. Some rough-looking guy opens a violin case with neatly arranged rifle components inside. In just a minute or two, he precisely assembles the parts resulting in a weapon  that can be employed for his evil intentions.

From this point on, I'm pulling for the intended victim. "Please, just quickly step to the left and avoid your demise!" (They only hear me half the time...) 

I was thinking about this today as I devised a grip system for my Olympus Air camera. I wanted a better way to hold the device, so I dug around in my photo junk box and found a flash grip from the late 90s. 

It's a classic "L" bracket that breaks into two pieces for easy transport. I mounted my ikan micro spot LED light in the hot shoe, and used the tripod socket to connect the Olympus Air to the bottom of the bracket. All that was left was to attach the iPhone 6S to the back of the Air.

My assembled kit includes the 16MP Olympus Air, zoom lens, adjustable LED light, iPhone 6S, and grip.

The rig balances extremely well in my hands, is light, and the large Retina Display on the iPhone is a joy to compose with. Originally, I was only using the Olympus Air for  GoPro-like action shots or for hanging off tree branches. But now, it's totally fun to shoot with handheld too. (The only drawback was when my wife called during video recording. I felt odd talking into my camera during the conversation.)

My disassembled kit ready for packing in my camera bag. (Photos by Derrick Story)

But here's the really cool part. When it came time to pack my rig and stash it in my camera bag, the parts took up hardly any space. I could fit the baseplate here, the light there, and slide the grip between those two thingies. 

Yes, I am the photo assassin.

I admit, I shoot people all the time. But I never hurt a soul. And I much prefer my Lowepro FastPack 150 to a violin case. 

But make no doubt about it... my aim is true.

-Derrick

Why Podcasting?

I just published the 500th episode of The Digital Story, a project that has spanned 10 years. 

At the time of the first show, October 2005, I was working for the publisher O'Reilly Media and writing photography books. My side business of shooting weddings and other events keep my photography sharp. And I had developed a good reputation in the Apple community as a writer for Macworld Magazine, speaker at Macworld conferences, and the editor for macdevcenter.com.

So, with all this going on, why get into podcasting?

One thing I had learned in my years of technology, is that you can't stand pat. A lot of people hate this reality. But as I watched companies like Netscape rise and fall, I knew that this possibility applied to me too. My position at O'Reilly and in the Mac community had an expiration date. And it came sooner than I thought.

I embraced podcasting because I felt it was the best way for me to become a legitimate publisher on my own, not depending on anything other than the Internet and unfolding news. I would build the site, record the shows, and syndicate them using RSS and the new capacity that the iTunes Store added for podcasters. That decision turned out to be a good one.

Months later, I was laid off from O'Reilly, followed by severe cutbacks at Macworld Magazine, and the closing of the Macworld Conference. I was now on my own, whether I wanted to be or not.

The Digital Story became my career lifeline. Its popularity secured press passes to major events, access to manufacturers and their products, and raised my standing in the photography community. It bought me time while I reinvented myself once again.

Even though the show is free to download, it gives back in so many ways. That's why I love to thank listeners for their support.

Now I'm working on a new endeavor: The Nimble Photographer Show. I'm taking a different approach with it, and I look forward to sharing the details with you soon. 

I'll continue with The Digital Story for as long as the audience supports it. I like that show. And The Nimble Photographer podcast will start a new chapter in my continued effort.

Which is as always, to ride the winds of change. And try not to be swept way in the process.

-Derrick